First and Third Sundays

We will mix Balkan, Israeli and other folk dances each week, with occasional live music from Balkan, Israeli and other traditions.  Watch the calendar for announcements about special dances, but just come to each dance and learn all sorts of dances.

The Nettles

Laura Brophy – fiddle;
Kevin Johnsrude – guitars;
Michael Proctor – bass;
Brian Bucolo – percussion;

The Nettles are well-known on the West Coast for their original approach to contra dance music. Playing traditional music from all over the world, The Nettles create a strong rhythmic groove under soaring improvisations. Rhythmic drive and melodic fluidity allow The Nettles to propel contra dances into the stratosphere.

Lindsey Dono

Massachusetts transplant Lindsey Dono is rapidly establishing herself as a Northwest mainstay. With her serene teaching, meticulous programming, and sunny demeanor, Lindsey transforms absolute beginners into confident regulars. Known for her creativity on the dance floor, Lindsey incorporates knowledge of waltz, swing, and blues to lead a variety of workshops, including the ever-requested “advanced contra flourishes.” By day, Lindsey is a devoted research scientist.

Beginners lesson starts at 7:30pm (experienced dancers welcome) dance starts at 8:00pm

Each dance is taught.  No partner necessary (it’s traditional to dance each dance with a different partner)

First and Third Saturdays of the month except July, August. Occasional special dances.

Song Circle

Share a song, lead a song, request a song, or listen as we go round the circle. Song Circle is free and open to all who wish to participate.  Bring your own instrument, borrow one, or just sing.

First and Third Sundays

We will mix Balkan, Israeli and other folk dances each week, with occasional live music from Balkan, Israeli and other traditions.  Watch the calendar for announcements about special dances, but just come to each dance and learn all sorts of dances.

Bill Staines

Anyone not familiar with the music of Bill Staines is in for a special treat.

For more than forty years, Bill has traveled back and forth across North America, singing his songs and delighting audiences at festivals, folksong societies, colleges, concerts, clubs, and coffeehouses. A New England native, Bill became involved with the Boston-Cambridge folk scene in the early 1960’s and for a time, emceed the Sunday Hootenanny at the legendary Club 47 in Cambridge. Bill quickly became a popular performer in the Boston area. From the time in 1971 when a reviewer from the Boston Phoenix stated that he was “simply Boston’s best performer”, Bill has continually appeared on folk music radio listener polls as one of the top all time favorite folk artists. Now, well into his fifth decade as a folk performer, he has gained an international reputation as a gifted songwriter and performer.

Singing mostly his own songs, he has become one of the most popular and durable singers on the folk music scene today, performing nearly 200 concerts a year and driving over 65,000 miles annually. He weaves a blend of gentle wit and humor into his performances and one reviewer wrote, “He has a sense of timing to match the best standup comic.”

Bill’s music is a slice of Americana, reflecting with the same ease his feelings about the prairie people of the Midwest or the adventurers of the Yukon, the on-the-road truckers, or the everyday workers that make up this land.

Many of Bill’s songs have appeared in grade school music books, church hymnals, and scouting campfire songbooks; he is one of only a few songwriters to have eight songs published in the classic song collection, Rise up Singing. Composer David Amram recently described Bill as “a modern day Stephen Foster…his songs will be around 100 years from now.”

Over the decades, you have heard Bill singing on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, HBO’s award winning series Deadwood, and Public Radio’s Mountain Stage. Additionally, his music has been used in a number of films including Off and Running, with Cyndi Lauper, and The Return of the Secaucus Seven, John Sayles’ debut as a writer- director.

In 1975, Bill won National Yodeling Championship in Kerrville Texas. Another important recognition was given to him in 2007. Presented by the Boston Area Coffeehouse Association, The Jerry Christen Award recognized Bill’s contribution to New England folk music.

Currently, Bill has recorded 26 albums; The Happy Wanderer and One More River were winners of the prestigious Parents’ Choice Award, taking a gold medal and silver medal respectively. His songs have been recorded by many artists including Peter, Paul, and Mary, Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy, The Highwaymen, Mason Williams, Grandpa Jones, Jerry Jeff Walker, Nanci Griffith, Glen Yarborough and others.

As well as recordings, over 100 of Bill’s songs have been published in three songbooks: If I Were a Word, Then I’d Be a Song, Movin’ It Down the Line, and Music to Me, the latter published by Hal Leonard Corporation. His song, All God’s Critters, has been recently released as a Simon and Schuster children’s book with illustrations by Caldecott honor-winning artist, Kadir Nelson.

“Folk music is rich in the human spirit and experience. I’ve always wanted to bring something of value to people through my songs.” With these thoughts, Bill continues to drive the highways and back roads of the country year after year, bringing his music to listeners, young and old.

In the fall of 2015 Yankee Magazine, New England’s premiere magazine, published it’s “80th Anniversary Issue.” In the issue, along with the likes of Stephen King and Katherine Hepburn, Bill was chosen as “One of the 80 gifts New England has given to America.”
A true honor.

Mike and Carleen McCornack

Mike and Carleen have been entertaining adults and children in Oregon for decades with original and traditional folk tunes.  While they live in Eugene, it’s become rare to see them in Corvallis, and we should take advantage of every chance we get.

Full Moon

Gordy Euler – fiddle
Dave Hamlin – fiddle, mandolin
Janet Ghoulston – concertina, banjo
Fran Slefer – fiddle, button accordion,  piano

Full Moon have used their 15+ years of playing together to hone a distinct sound focused on lifting dancers’ feet and hearts.

Laurel Thomas

Laurel Thomas has called contra dances all over Oregon and Washington since 2008. Dancers appreciate her clear teaching, her articulate calling and her carefully crafted programs designed to build skill for beginning dancers while keeping experienced dancers happy with an appropriate level of challenge. .

Beginners lesson starts at 7:30pm (experienced dancers welcome) dance starts at 8:00pm

Each dance is taught.  No partner necessary (it’s traditional to dance each dance with a different partner)

First and Third Saturdays of the month except July, August. Occasional special dances.

Bring your instrument or just yourself and sing, play or just listen.

Bring your instrument or just yourself and sing, play or just listen.

Broken Top

Bo Leyden – mandolin
Shari Ame – fiddle
John Light – keyboards
A new Corvallis contra band, with a Portland keyboardist, Broken Top brings lively traditional music to the dance.

Noah Grunzweig

Noah Grunzweig is a master of stories and dance!  He called in Corvallis most recently at the last New Years Eve dance.

Beginners lesson starts at 7:30pm (experienced dancers welcome) dance starts at 8:00pm

Each dance is taught.  No partner necessary (it’s traditional to dance each dance with a different partner)

First and Third Saturdays of the month except July, August. Occasional special dances.

First and Third Sundays

We will mix Balkan, Israeli and other folk dances each week, with occasional live music from Balkan, Israeli and other traditions.  Watch the calendar for announcements about special dances, but just come to each dance and learn all sorts of dances.

Song Circle

Share a song, lead a song, request a song, or listen as we go round the circle. Song Circle is free and open to all who wish to participate.  Bring your own instrument, borrow one, or just sing.

Tonight’s Balkan-emphasis dance will feature
live music by

Živeli

Julie Firman – violin and vocals
Jeff Muhr – guitar
Bill Pfender – clarinet
Diane Rainsford – percussion, vocals
Leigh Ann Starcevich – tambura,  vocals
Brian Wood – guitar, tambura, bass

Živeli is a Corvallis-based Balkan folk dance band who have played for Hoolyeh dances twice last year to enthusiastic response.  They have played for folk dances in Salem and Eugene also.  Their repertoire includes dances from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, Serbia, and Roma traditions.

KGB

• Julie King – piano
• Claude Ginsburg – violin, concertina, viola
• Dave Bartley – mandolin, guitar, cittern, etc.

This KGB is not a spy organization, but a band from Seattle that plays for New England style contradance, English Country Dance (as MI-5), Mostly Waltz and other social dance events, concerts, and private functions such as wedding receptions. We write a lot of our own music, and the rest comes from all over the world: the British Isles, French Canada, the Northeastern USA, Western and Eastern Europe, South America, the rest of the USA, and places we haven’t yet identified.  Their last (first) dance in Corvallis in January was cancelled because of a major storm.

William Watson

William Watson, a resident of Eugene, OR, danced his first contra in 1989 and began calling in Texas in 1992. Having called numerous contra events in cities coast-to-coast, William’s extensive experience and soothing voice project a calm confidence. His vigilant and thoughtful dance programming ensures a variety of figures, transitions, and sequences to entertain and support new dancers while offering the occasional challenge for the more advanced. His calling proficiency and sensitivities ensure everyone has a good time.

Note the changed location:

Wilson Elementary School
2701 NW Satinwood St

Beginners lesson starts at 7:30pm (experienced dancers welcome) dance starts at 8:00pm

Each dance is taught.  No partner necessary (it’s traditional to dance each dance with a different partner)

First and Third Saturdays of the month except July, August. Occasional special dances.

First and Third Sundays

We will mix Balkan, Israeli and other folk dances each week, with occasional live music from Balkan, Israeli and other traditions.  Watch the calendar for announcements about special dances, but just come to each dance and learn all sorts of dances.

Bring your instrument or just yourself and sing, play or just listen.